The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

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When should the Harvard Open happen? (Select up to five.)

January 24th/25th, right after ACF Winter
2
13%
February 21st/22nd, right before ACF Regionals
3
19%
Some weekend in March (recommend one in your post!) despite spring break shenanigans
3
19%
April 11th/12th, right after NAQT ICT
5
31%
April 18th/19th, right before ACF Nationals
3
19%
 
Total votes: 16

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Mechanical Beasts
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The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

As the poll indicates, we don't know when this tournament should be, but we are able to announce that the first Harvard Open will take place. It will be house-written and house-edited, with a target difficulty somewhere between ACF Regionals and ACF Nationals. Though it will be unlikely to approach too closely the latter side of the spectrum unless it takes place in April, ideally the top teams in the nation will be challenged by the set one way or another. Our difficulty target is unlikely to change, but if it does, we'll make it clear here.

Registration is, as implied by the title, open; fee structure and the like will be determined later, probably after formal arrangements are made--i.e. a date set and rooms reserved. At that point this will become a more formal tournament announcement, too.

Two side-tournaments are tentatively planned. The first is fine arts doubles, written by Andrew Hart, Ted Gioia, Aaron Rosenberg, Charlie Dees, Guy Tabachnick, and Shantanu Jha. The second is best explained by its lame subtitle: "Science: Dismal and Gay." I'm writing a tournament (probably singles, but that's mostly because I assume few people will be interested) that will be roughly half science, a quarter poetry, and a quarter economics--however unorthodox, I think it should be fun to play. They both will get their own tournament announcements when that's appropriate.

The main event will, in all likelihood, use the same model that we're trying out with our high school tournament. Under this system, after we rebracket for a playoff round robins, the playoff and consolation rooms get two different packets. This is not actually that infeasible, since the questions, both tossups and bonuses, will be related (or in some cases they'll be the same). A tossup on Woman in the Dunes might appear in the consolation rooms; a tossup on something less-well-known by Abe would appear in the playoff rooms.

If any of these elements intrigues you, from the main event to the fine arts tournament to my side event, please vote on when the tournament should be. You can pick any or all of the choices.

We're looking for mirrors, of course--probably in the south, the west, and--hell, why not placate Rob--the midwest.
Last edited by Mechanical Beasts on Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Sir Thopas »

I'll probably come to this, but I just wanted to say that I'll be writing some questions for the fine arts tournament as well. This way you all know who to blame fro whatever clunkers get in there, or something.

But seriously, I'm looking forward to this tournament and for contributing some as well. I don't really have an issue about the date that I know of, although it probably shouldn't conflict with WoQ, if that's happening next year in whatever form.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

It would be totally awesome if you got this mirrored somewhere in the midwest.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by theMoMA »

everyday847 wrote:We will, in all likelihood, use the same model that we're trying out with our high school tournament: we're going to write different (but related) tossups and bonuses for playoff and consolation packets. The high school example we gave in the announcement over there was replacing a tossup on Fitzgerald with one on Tender is the Night.
I don't know what this means, and I don't know which tournament it applies to.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by The Logic of Scientific Disco »

theMoMA wrote:
everyday847 wrote:We will, in all likelihood, use the same model that we're trying out with our high school tournament: we're going to write different (but related) tossups and bonuses for playoff and consolation packets. The high school example we gave in the announcement over there was replacing a tossup on Fitzgerald with one on Tender is the Night.
I don't know what this means, and I don't know which tournament it applies to.
I think he means that for the main event, the packets being played simultaneously in playoff and consolation rooms will be slightly different, and easier in the consolation rooms.

This weekend of stuff sounds awesome, by the way; I'd probably play all three tournaments even if they weren't right down the street. So yeah, expect a solid MIT contingent.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Magister Ludi »

To answer Andrew's question. There will be two sets of playoff packets. The one in the top bracket will be significantly more difficult (perhaps around ACF Nats level), while the other set used in the lower bracket will be the same difficulty as the prelims.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by theMoMA »

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for clearing it up.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Also clarified up top, for those of you just joining us.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Eärendil »

My only objection to the January/February dates is that we're planning on holding Cardinal Classic somewhere in the first half of February. Details are forthcoming, but just a heads up so the calendar doesn't become too crowded like this past winter.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

When I think of the March option, I can't help but remember that poor Columbia tournament that got cancelled because everyone was on spring break (or had midterms). I wouldn't want to see that happen to any tournament, especially not one that I am writing things for.

Somebody with more free time than me should go to the websites of all the QB schools in the Northeast and check when they have spring break, and then post that information here. I suspect it will reveal that March is not viable, and we will go back to discussing other dates.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Eärendil wrote:My only objection to the January/February dates is that we're planning on holding Cardinal Classic somewhere in the first half of February. Details are forthcoming, but just a heads up so the calendar doesn't become too crowded like this past winter.
It's very true; the Jan/Feb/Mar dates have more immediate problems than the April.
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Re: The Harvard Open, date as yet indeterminant

Post by The Logic of Scientific Disco »

OK, so out of the 7 schools in the northeast that come to stuff (MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Brandeis, Amherst, Yale), here are the ones unavailable due to spring break per weekend:

3/7: none
3/14: Dartmouth, Amherst, Yale
3/21: all but Brandeis
3/28: MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth

This is to first approximation; I didn't try to figure out Dartmouth's exam/reading period schedule, or anything like that. Either way, it looks like March 7 could be viable, but it might be smack in the middle of midterms for a lot of schools (I know March 7 will be right between the two weeks where most MIT classes have their first exam, for example).
Chris Kennedy, MIT
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